Indoor Gold Cons Cleanup - Winter Fun, wheeeeee! Options

[Crusty]

Revisiting this thread, FINALLY setting up my blue bowl!

[Crusty]

OK, I'm definitely a blue bowl convert. Had fun working though my 2 coffee cans of cons from 3 trips to Swizz's claim and one trip to Clear Creek.

Got all set up, and of course it started raining, so I had to move closer to the house and break out my raincoat.

Found one flake in the 30 mesh and 5 little bits in the 50 mesh. Tomorrow I'll run the 70 and 100.

Thanks for the great tips Swizz; made doing this for the first time a breeze!

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[Crusty]

Got my 70 & 100 screens mixed up, so it was all 100... let's just say I just THOUGHT I was sold in the blue bowl, now that I ran the 100 and the -100, I KNOW I am sold! This is material I've panned the heck out of and I am shocked at the amount of color I got.

Pics in the morning; bed time for now!

[Crusty]

I forgot in addition to 3 trips to Swizz's and a Clear Creek trip, there are cons from a bag of pay I bought over the winter to play with.

Amazed at the amount of stuff I missed panning (and wondering how much I've thrown away after panning and throwing away material I though was color free )

Here's the 100 mesh




, the -100 . Curious at the amount in the -100, as I know Swizz's claim doesn't have a lot in that size... so either we hit a layer that does, or it is all from CC and the pay I bought.



and the total I got out of 2 half full coffee cans

[swizz]

I'm cornfused.... that can't be your grand total from our last trip. If so, somethin ain't right.... or we need to move on to another hole. That's not a lot.

[Crusty]

I'm cornfused.... that can't be your grand total from our last trip. If so, somethin ain't right.... or we need to move on to another hole. That's not a lot.

These are my leftover cons that I'd already panned, but held on to, so I could blue bowl them. So they'd already been panned (with my obviously crappy panning skills! lol)

I just mentioned you in the -100 comment, since I know hasn't been much of that size stuff coming out of your hole, so either we came upon a fine layer or the pay I bought had a bunch of fines in it. I didn't have too much material from CC, so I don't think it was from there. Will be interesting to see what you got on the 4th to see if you ended up with much 100 & -100.

[swizz]

Oh... I get it. I might suggest that you organize and tag your con samples? I use Ziplocs to organize my samples but the coffee can containers are a good idea too, just take up too much space for me.

[Crusty]

Oh... I get it. I might suggest that you organize and tag your con samples? I use Ziplocs to organize my samples but the coffee can containers are a good idea too, just take up too much space for me.

Rog, saw you doing that and will definitely clean up the "technical" side of my operation, so I know what's what.

[EMac]

Reading about ye olde blue bowl, it seems some folks like to move the supplied valve back a bit from bowl; perhaps it provides a more laminar water flow. Did any of you do any mods? I saw that Chris was considering replacing the valve.

[swizz]

Yes, for sure. This thread is about 5yrs old now.... a few years ago I retrofitted a good spigot about 8 or 10 inches back from the bowl. It helps for sure. I also recommend a small pump like a 250. Anything larger gets a workout when you choke the flow with the spigot or whatever regulator. A solution to that (too big of pump) would be to run it full blast and add a "Y" connector to bleed off the excess (back into the tub).... which also can help control the bowl flow.
My current setup.... (15gal) Small submerged pump and no bleeder.
Blue Bowl by GhostCreekMine, on Flickr

[EMac]

Excellent! I suspect I'll have to do something similar. It should be here tomorrow, so I'm pretty stoked.

[Silky]

I've marked the inside of the Blue Bowl with individual level indicators for each mesh:


Working like a charm:


Eureka!


Here are the results from the gold/quartz cab pannings:


Bag 2; I haven't had time to dry and sort it yet but these are some of the larger pieces that will go into my project. Many thanks Dan & Denise!


Saddle-up boys, we's a goin' inta town for sum vittles and a hot shower tonight!

I'm not understanding the water setup (yes I am a newb) Is it sucking water up out of the tub and spraying it back in? I don't see where the end where you can get electrocuted is doing anything but sitting in the water with an exposed wire attached to a battery. I have seen some of the prospectors use this setup when cleaning gems in the field, but not in a house.

[EMac]

In the pics, water is pumped (submersible) from the bigger 25-gallon bucket into the blue bowl setting up a vortex. The water level is adjusted for the mesh size being processed, and the theory is to set the water just high enough to lift the black sands up the center cone, while the heavier gold settles around the bottom of the cone. Swizz linked a video in post 18 of this thread that shows it in action.

[swizz]

Silky, Eric is correct. The white hose in the pic leads into the tub. At the bottom there is a small 12 volt bilge pump exactly like the ones used in boats.... it can't electrocute you, it's only 12V and fully sealed. The Blue Bowl is essentially a centrifuge and works similar to a toilet. Water is pumped into the bowl and swirls clockwise. Slowly add material. The light material finds it's way to the cone first. It climbs the cone and exits the center (flushed down the toilet).... into the waste bucket that the bowl is perched on. The Gold is way too heavy to climb the cone and get flushed. It stays at the base of the cone and elsewhere throughout the bowl during the process. It's kinda fun to watch.

[Denise]

I have seen some of the prospectors use this setup when cleaning gems in the field, but not in a house.

In my opinion, this unit is used best for cleaning out concentrates and not raw material.